out ships to trade with Cathaya, China, Japan, Corea, Cambaya, and any other countries in the same quarter of the globe not already frequented by the English; and Michelborne had actually sailed for China in December, 1604, and, although he did not succeed in reaching that country, had made his way as far as to the Oriental Archipelago, whence he returned to England in July, 1606, bringing with him little else than the plunder of some small Indian and Chinese vessels, which he had attacked with no more regard either to the right of other nations or the character of his own than if he had been a common pirate. Disgusted by this ill-usage on the part of the government, in addition to the disappointment of their hopes of large and speedy returns from the subscriptions they had already risked, and influenced also somewhat by the popular outcry that was raised about the impolitic and destructive nature of the new trade, which, it was affirmed, besides occasioning an unusual mortality of the seamen, would, if persisted in, prove a wasteful drain both upon the treasure and the marine of the country, most of the members of the company were now inclined to put up with their losses and to have nothing more to do with the business. The spirit of others, however, still clung to the hope of better success; and, a new subscription having been opened, three more ships were sent out in March and April, 1607, and two more in !March the following year. Neither of these attempts was very fortunate: the two vessels that sailed last, indeed, were both lost at sea, although the crews and a small part of the cargo of one of them were saved; but a single ship, the Expedition, which sailed in April, 1609, under the command of Captain David Middleton, brought home, about two years after, so valuable a cargo of nutmegs and mace as to produce a dividend of 211 per cent. Meanwhile a new charter, dated May 31, 1609, had been obtained by the company, by which their privilege of exclusive trade, originally granted for fifteen years, was made perpetual, a power, however, being reserved by the government of dissolving them at any time on three years' notice. They now built the
